Amelie's Angels Book Drive

Amelie's Angels Bringing the Magic of Books To Rady Children's Oncology Patients

In August of 2015, dear friends of ours precious little Amelie Fira was diagnosed with a rare and agressive type of brain cancer. For nearly two years, Amelie underwent heartbreaking radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and a large array of procedures at Rady Children’s Hospital. Throughout her treatment, this little warrior spent months on end hospitalized and/or 5-15 hours a week in one hospital clinic or another.
 
Tragically, this is the story of 6-year old Amelie and MANY other children that battle childhood cancer today. As you can imagine, it is extremely challenging to keep such children entertained and spirits uplifted for their visits of 5-hour to week-long stretches, as they under go treatment for months on end….

A year ago this month, Amelie Fira joined her heavenly father and family in heaven. She brought such joy, light, and inspiration to us all. I will always be moved by a precious moment I shared with her in the last few months of her life. She had suffered a massive stroke and had limited facial responses at that point. As I flipped through the large beautifully illustrated, and vibrant colored pages of “The Big Book of Colors”, she picked up her head for a moment, her eyes brightened and she responded with delight. Usborne Books & More are magic, and they take children to beautiful places when they need them the most.

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I, Renee May, am an Educational Services Representative with Children’s Book publisher Usborne Books & More. One of biggest reasons that I became a part of Usborne Books & More is that it is a very mission-driven company and I love that I can help lift the spirits of Amelie and many other children like her by providing engaging children’s stories and activity books to inspire their imagination and lift them to brighter days during treatments.
 
For the past two years, I have run this same donation drive and have been so GRATEFUL of the support it has received. YOU ALL donated a total of $5,500 to this amazing cause and Usborne Books & More conducted a 50% match (!!!) RESULTING in the donation of over $11,000 worth of books to Rady Children’s Hospital, its Hematology and Oncology department (HEMONC), and Scripps Proton Radiation Center! It has been AMAZING!!
 
To this day, I remain in contact with the Child Life Specialists in Rady’s HEMONC department. Not only have we been able to completely revamp their play area, they have used the books donated by so many of YOU on a daily basis for child therapy sessions and as distractions during painful procedures. Additionally, we were able to provide direct gifts the HEMONC child patients with age-specific books in their “warm packages” when they check onto the unit. All this was a result of YOUR support!!
 
Rady’s HEMONC department and the hospital has been ever so grateful of these donations. However, they have told me that its book supply has run out for their "warm packages" and personalized therapy sessions, and that they could really need MORE Usborne books!  

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Join us in reaching the goal of raising $3000 to bring brightly colored and textured readers, calming-loving stories, AND engaging activity books to the children of Rady Children’s Hospital Hematology and Oncology department!  

Please consider donating $5-25 dollars (any amount, no matter the size helps) so that we can continue to provide patients directly with fresh and exciting children’s books. 100% of proceeds (plus, a 50% company match) will go DIRECTLY towards this goal. For every dollar you donate, Rady's will receive $1.50 in books!

I know many of you know Amelie and her story well, and I know ALL of us want to continue to bring her bright spirit and magic to the little-warriors at Radys.  Books are magic, they truly make a difference in our little warriors’ lives.    Thank you so very much for your generosity!
 
Gratefully,

Renee May, Amelie Fira and her friends at Rady Children’s Hospital

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Donation DEADLINE is WEDNESDAY, JULY 25TH!

**Donations can be accepted here or via paypal or Venmo (no fees)****

Paypal:  [email redacted]
Venmo: @Renee-May-5